Buckeye Targets Normal Operations At Bahamas Oil Terminal

Buckeye Partners LP resumed normal operations of its Bahamas crude oil and fuel terminal following the hit of Hurricane Irma, it said on Sept. 12. Irma was one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes on record, which rampaged through the Caribbean.

The Buckeye Bahamas Hub terminal, previously known as BORCO, located in Freeport, Grand Bahama Island, has no reported injuries, incidents or damage and restart activities began on Sept. 11, Buckeye said.

The terminal is Buckeye's largest and has the capacity to store about 26.2 million barrels of oil (MMbbl), fuel oil, gasoline and other products. It is also the largest fuel storage terminal in the western hemisphere, the Buckeye Global Marine Partners website said.

In 2011, Buckeye paid about $1.7 billion to buy the Bahamas Oil Refining Co. International Ltd (BORCO) facility and invested hundreds of millions more to expand the capacity.

Buckeye was forced to shut the terminal due to Irma on Sept. 7.

The terminal is conveniently situated for global crude and products flows and is located in a Free Trade Zone area, allowing imports to be exempted from customs duties.

Irma has killed nearly 40 people in the Caribbean and at least six in Florida and Georgia. It hammered energy infrastructure in those regions, even as recovery operations from storm Harvey were under way. Buckeye's terminals in Puerto Rico have returned to normal, Reuters said. The U.S.-based midstream company had closed Yabucoa’s 4.6 MMbbl terminal in Puerto Rico before the hurricane.

Buckeye also said it aims to return some Florida terminals and pipelines to limited service utilizing back-up power in 12 hours to 48 hours. All employees at Tampa and in the Miami area are safe and accounted for, Buckeye said.

Nustar Energy LP put damage assessments of its terminal on the Caribbean island of St. Eustatius on hold as it prepared for Hurricane Jose, it said on Sept. 11. Several tanks and other equipment at the 13.03 MMbbl crude and product storage terminal was damaged by Irma.